The present volume contains the major papers of one of psychology's most iconoclastic scholars. In a series of controversial and groundbreaking articles and books, Kenneth Gergen has not only offered a radical challenge to psychology's traditional concept of the self, but to its foundation as a science. Where traditional psychology defines the self as the private possession of individuals, operating on the basis of universal principles made manifest through inspection by scientific procedures. The psychologist as a private, rational being, thus accumulates knowledge of the personal world of the other.
The Learning Self This new book from the award-winning author of Psychology and Adult Learning puts the spotlight on the kind of learning that brings about significant personal change. Tennant explores the techniques, processes, and practices educators can use to promote learning that leads to change and examines assumptions about self and identity, how we are formed, and our capacity for change. The Learning Self addresses the different concepts of self and how they frame our understanding of personal transformation. The book opens with an exploration of the key concepts of self, identity, and subjectivity. The remaining chapters fall into two distinct groups. The first comprises chapters dealing with different versions of the self: The Authentic or Real Self, The Autonomous Self, The Repressed Self, The Socially Constructed Self, and The Storied Self. Tennant's aim in each case is to analyze the issues that each conception of the self presents and to comment on the implications for learning for personal change. The second group of chapters—Knowing Oneself, Controlling Oneself, Caring for Oneself, and (Re)creating Oneself—analyze general interventions to change the self. Although the focus in these chapters is on techniques and methods, the author highlights the versions of the self being promoted in their use. Throughout the book, Tennant posits that individuals can be agents in their own self-formation and change by understanding and acting on the circumstances and forces that surround and shape them.Educators, he argues, must be open to different theoretical ideas and practices while simultaneously valuing these practices and viewing them with a critical eye.
Sponsored by the American Association of Adult & Continuing Education"This monumental work is a testimony to the science of adult education and the skills of Wilson and Hayes. It is a veritable feast for nourishing our understanding of the current field of adult education. The editors and their well-chosen colleagues consistently question how we know and upon what grounds we act. They invite us to consider not only how we can design effective adult education, but also why we practice in a particular socio-economic context." --Jane Vella, author of Taking Learning to Task and Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach "This new handbook captures the exciting intellectual and professional development of our field in the last decade. It is an indispensable resource for faculty, students, and professionals." --Jack Mezirow, emeritus professor, Adult and Continuing Education, Teachers College, Columbia University For nearly seventy years, the handbooks of adult and continuing education have been definitive references on the best practices, programs, and institutions in the field. In this new edition, over sixty leading authorities share their diverse perspectives in a single volume--exploring a wealth of topics, including: learning from experience, adult learning for self-development, race and culture in adult learning, technology and distance learning, learning in the workplace, adult education for community action and development, and much more. Much more than a catalogue of theory and historical facts, this handbook strongly reflects the values of adult educators and instructors who are dedicated to promoting social and educational opportunity for learners and to sustaining fair and ethical practices.
The third edition of this popular book examines the role of psychology in informing adult education practice and has been fully updated to reflect the effect of changes in the structure of society, globalisation, technology and the impact of postmodernism. It explores the traditions of key psychological theories and discusses issues and problems in applying them to an understanding of adult learning and development. It also examines the formation of identities and places increased emphasis on what it means to be a lifelong learner. Dealing with adult learning in a variety of contexts, the topics considered include: humanistic psychology self directed learners psychoanalytic approaches the formation of identities development of intelligence learning styles behaviourism group dynamics and group facilitators critical awareness.
Psychology: The Key Concepts is a comprehensive overview of 200 concepts central to a solid understanding of Psychology and includes the latest recommendations from the British Psychology Society (BPS). The focus is on practical uses of Psychology in settings such as nursing, education and human resources, with topics ranging from Gender to Psychometrics and Perception.
Produced in honor of White's eightieth birthday, Re-Figuring Hayden White testifies to the lasting importance of White's innovative work, which firmly reintegrates historical studies with literature and the humanities. The book is a major reconsideration of the historian's contributions and influence by an international group of leading scholars from a variety of disciplines. Individual essays address the key concepts of White's intellectual career, including tropes, narrative, figuralism, and the historical sublime while exploring the place of White's work in the philosophy of history, postmodernism, and ethics. They also discuss his role as historian and teacher and apply his ideas to specific historical events.
Throughout, he presents examples of how to plan and carry out research and practice in the community. The principles underlying the examples both enhance the relevance of the research and practice and increase the potential of community residents to use the findings for their own purposes."--Jacket.
Recent decades have witnessed an explosion of interest in both autobiography and environmental literature. In Refiguring the Map of Sorrow, Mark Allister brings these two genres together by examining a distinct form of grief narrative, in which the writers deal with mourning by standing explicitly both outside and inside the text: outside in writing about the natural world; inside in making that exposition part of the grieving process. Building on Peter Fritzell's thesis in Nature Writing and America that the best American nature writing blends Aristotelian natural history and Augustinian confession, this work of literary interpretation draws on psychoanalytical narrative theory, studies of grieving, autobiography theory, and ecocriticism for its insights into how nature writing can become an autobiographical, healing act. Allister examines works by Terry Tempest Williams, Sue Hubbell, Peter Matthiessen, Bill Barich, William Least Heat-Moon, and Gretel Ehrlich in order to demonstrate the difficulty of hearing nature speak, and of translating terrain and self into language and form. As he focuses on the many ways in which humans connect—often deeply and urgently—to animals or the land, Allister vastly extends our understanding of "relational" autobiography.
Adult Educational Psychology is useful for those encountering psychology as a subject in adult education courses as well as those with an interest in the psychology of adult development. It is directly relevant for teachers in higher education, instructors in technical and further education, staff development and human resource practitioners as well as community educators.
